Byzantine Bracelet

Susan Midlarsky from Waltham, Mass., is a talented jewelry maker and dedicated middle school teacher with a continued quest for knowledge. Once she even drove all the way to Ohio just to take private lessons from one of the most respected lamp workers in the country! She shows how to make a stylish Byzantine woven chain with a lampwork glass bead pendant.

Materials:

power drill
size 31 knitting needle
rotary tool or flexible shaft tool
diamond cutting bit
bowl of water
safety goggles
dust mask
tumbler
stainless steel mixed shot
6' of 22-gauge soft sterling silver wire
dish soap
towel
flush cutting wire cutters
metal file
needle nose pliers
jump ring tool
lobster claw clasp
16-gauge silver wire
round nose pliers
2 round beads
2 bead caps
didymium glasses
Moretti rods in clear blue, light green, clear, green, white, clear purple
light green stringer
metal pick
lamp work torch with fuel
steel mandrel
bead release
fiber blanket
annealing kiln
diamond bead reamer

Floral lampwork bead

1. Prepare mandrel with bead release, allowing time to dry.

2. Light the torch and make a base bead with clear blue glass (figure A).

3. Apply dots and lines with light green glass (figure B).

4. Pull dots and lines into the vines with cold stringer.

5. Encase vines with clear glass.

7. Apply five white dots around each green dot. Melt them down mostly into the bead.

8. Add a clear purple dot on each white dot (figure C).

9. Heat each flower and plunge the center with a metal pick (figure D). This will pull the dots into flower shapes.

10. Encase flowers, making sure to cast glass over the flower centers to make a nice bubble in the center.

11. After the glow has disappeared, place the bead in fiber blanket until cool, then batch anneal, or anneal directly in kiln if possible (figure E).

12. Clean the bead after it has cooled with diamond bead reamer and water (figure F).